Reading In the Dark In his novel, Reading In the Dark, Seamus Deane tells the story of an Irish Catholic family in Northern Ireland between the late Forties and early Seventies. He traces the path taken by a growing boy searching for and finding the truth about his family during this very tumultuous time and having to come to terms with what he discovers. Deane uses this family to illustrate the issues surrounding history that are central to the deeper understanding of his novel. He shows how th...

The Country of Ireland Population Ireland has been inhabited since Stone Age times. For more than five thousand years peoples moving westwards across the European continent have settled in the country and each new group of immigrants, Celts, Vikings, Normans, English, has contributed to its present population. In 1841, shortly before the Great Famine, the area comprising the present Irish State had a population of over 6.5 million. The next census (1851) showed a massive decline to 5.1 million f...

For quite some time Americans have been led to believe that during the 1820's and 30's, Jacksonian Democrats were the guardians of the people, and worked to improve the nation for the people. The truth remains, however, that during this period, President Jackson vetoed a bill to recharter the Bank of the United States of America, infringed on the rights of Native Americans, used "brute" force to bring Southerners under submission during the Tariff of 1832. He enacted the Spoils System which did ...

Reilly 1 How Irish History Affects Its Music After seven hundred years of British rule, and many uprisings that ended in failure, Ireland had reached a breakthrough. This breakthrough had an affect on many different people, especially Irish musicians. The series of uprisings and wars that led to the freedom of most of Ireland developed a new form of Irish music; the rebel songs. On Easter Monday of 1916, the first shot of the Easter Uprising was fired. Six members of the Irish Citizen Army shot ...

The Influence of Chinese and Irish Laborers on the Transcontinental Railroad The Chinese and Irish laborers answered strongly when asked to help build the Transcontinental Railroad that connected the Pacific and the Atlantic Coasts. During the long process the immigrant workers encountered harsh weather and living and working conditions. Their work produced the Great Iron Trail in an incredibly short time with minimal resources and equipment. Their struggles are often overlooked and their overse...

"We are talking about one of the greatest tragedies Of the nineteenth century". -Ian Gibson Irish-American. To some, this term merely designates one of the many ethnic groups which can be found in the United States; but to those who are Irish-American, it represents a people who faced a disaster of mammoth proportions and who managed to survive at great cost. The Great Hunger of 1845 changed, or more often, destroyed the lives of millions of Irish, causing them to seek refuge from poverty and st...

Ireland: An Expansion through Time The Romans were the first true force to convert to Christianity. During their reign they would conquer and command heathen tribes into obeying this new found religion. However, the Roman Empire would decay, disappear and then it was left to another group to take over. The Irish would eventually become a driving force behind Christianity; peaceably converting and forming new ideas and thought behind the religion itself. Thus, the Irish unknowingly save civilizat...

Many people would agree that the Irish have been successful in assimilating into American culture and the Native American has been unsuccessful. There have been many boundaries that both groups have encountered but they are more of a hardship for the Native American. These include Racial and Cultural boundaries, Personal boundaries, Sociological boundaries, Political and Economic boundaries, and Geographical boundaries. Racial and Cultural boundaries are probably the hardest obstacle that Native...

Gladstones mission to pacify Ireland was essentaillyan attempt to achieve a just relationship between landlord and tenant and grant Ireland certain independence. He attemtped to succeed in his conquest with the introduction of several Land Acts (1870-1881) and the disestablishment of the Protestant Church (1869). The first Land Act was passed in 1870, following the Fenian uprising of 1867. This act legalized the Ulster Custom of fair rent, free sale and fixity of tenure in areas where it operate...

Question 3: Triangle trade brought slavery to America and helped Americans get important commodities it could not otherwise obtain. In the short term, triangle trade allowed farmers, fishermen, and other businesses to export their goods and make money, also allowing them to import goods that they needed from England. Triangle trade was necessary because of the British Navigation Acts, which restricted trade on certain items. Triangle trade also came about because sometime around the 1730's the E...

In ancient Ireland, music was an important part of life. It was played for Kings, Chiefs, and also for entertainment of the people. The first Irish tunes were played primarily on the harp. Professional harpers were honored above all other musicians and earned a high reputation for their music. After a horrific war in Ireland in 1607, there was a heavy blow to the Gaelic order. Many towns were destroyed, and several of the music schools were shut down. Because most of the tunes were transmitted o...

AIB group is Ireland's leading banking and financial services organisation. It operates principally in Ireland, Britain, the USA, Poland and Asia. The group employs over 31,000 people worldwide in more than 1,000 offices. The group has four main divisions: . AIB BANK: This consists of the group's retail and commercial activities in the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland, Britian, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. It also includes Ark Life and other specialist business offering credit c...

The Irish during the times of 1941 to 1945 faced many difficult decisions and had to make sure any actions they took bettered their country. With World War II being the largest war the world had ever seen, involvement at any level meant a lot to a country and would shape relations with other countries for a long time to come. Ireland was torn between its hatred of Britain and its conscience when the time came to pick sides. On one hand, the Irish hated Britain to a great extent; on the other, th...

Saint Patrick's birth is the most important event in the medieval era. The goal of this essay is to show and prove why Saint Patrick is the most important figure in the medieval era. Saint Patrick is the most important figure in the medieval era because even today, everyone who is anyone knows who St. Patrick is. Whether this is because he is the reason for the day that everyone is Irish or not, one can not deny that he has had a widespread influence on the world. St. Patrick is one of Christian...

Fiction Paper 1 Birds of a Feather Gish Jen's "Who's Irish?" is full of symbolism, allowing the reader the ability to find many levels of depth in this story. Jen uses a first person narrator to tell of the struggle to understand and live in a completely different culture. There are four pieces of symbolism that assist in the interpretation of this story: Sophie, Sophie's clothes, spanking, the birdfeeder. Jen begins with her largest piece of symbolism, the granddaughter, Sophie. Sophie is the j...

Outside History The theme of this poem is the exclusion from history of those who have been voiceless and forgotten, the casualties of war, colonisation and, of course, women who for so long were denied status and recognition because of their gender. Boland rebelled against the mythisation of Irish history: the songs, the ballads, the female icons of the nation, the romantic images. Myth obscures the reality, manipulates history. It is outside real, lived history, a remote, unchanging image, a f...

One of the most striking features of the British Population since the turn of the century has been its growth in the number of its third world ex-colonial population from negligible proportions to the present time where coloured ethnics account for 5% of the total population of Britain. Peach, Robinson, Matted and Chance (PRM C) argue that this immigration can be broadly defined as Irish in the nineteenth, Jewish at the beginning of the twentieth century and predominantly West Indian and South A...

A HISTORIOGRAPHY OF ROGER SHERMAN LOOMIS The tales of the Arthurian legend are some of the most popular from medieval times, and the reason for this is primarily due to their fabulous nature. In them are the exploits of heroes and the machinations of villains, the workings of sorcerers and the existence of magical objects. They embody the noble themes of chivalry and sacrifice, as well as those of revenge and evil. Action, violence, and sex are all included, and as shall be seen, there are many ...

Account For The Failure Of Both The Account For The Failure Of Both The Power Sharing Executive And The Northern Ireland Assembly Account for the failure of both the Power Sharing Executive and the Northern Ireland Assembly Seminar No. 5 To account for such a failure in the power-sharing executive it is necessary for one to look at the structure and the organisation of the Assemblies as well as assessing its aims and directives as well as to examine the time scale to which this has taken place. ...